I don't understand why the judge felt the need to wear blackface. You know, you can dress up in a jumpsuit without doing something that you know is a dumb thing to do. He acted stupid, he should pay the consequences. The thread is an interesting mix- there is a lot of whites who are pretty ignorant, but there are some other people who are trying to explain why people might not be cool with blackface. One of the most interesting arguments was the fact that black people have a reason to dislike whites, but whites don't have a reason to dislike blacks.

For example, let's take racial rumors. A white racial rumor is blacks are all criminals. Because of that racial rumor, they'll arrest more blacks(because you'll usually find what you are looking for- they sure weren't busting those pot smoking underage drinking white folk I was with yesterday) and fuck up their lives. Thus causing dislike. A black racial rumor is that white people have lice. While not true as far as I can tell, the worst thing that would happen was that someone says "no thank you" to comb sharing.

I'm trying to articulate how systematic oppression differs from individual assholeness. Like if people didn't stereotype all blacks as criminals, then no one would care, and if it was only that one guy who did it, no one would care either. It's just a big subject with a lot of nuances and things to think about, and you can't really reduce it to little cute slogans or rules that cut both ways, because both situations aren't the same.

There's a big difference between saying "Hey, you say I suck, but you're wrong, I rock"(black pride) and "I am entitled to terrorize and kill people" (white pride- what are the principle activities of white pride groups? not school breakfast for sure). There's a big difference between starting with everyone assuming you're good enough, and starting with everyone assuming you're a worthless idiot.

Man, it's such a huge subject! Like there's interlocking oppressions, the role of history, the role of responsibility(I am a bit creeped out about how whites try to disclaim any responsibility for anything- if you say you're not responsible, then any amount of bad behavior can be excused), the role of self hate, systems versus individuals. It's so much bigger than one line from MLK and saying you are colorblind.

I feel almost insulted that white people think that the issue of race is too scary to confront. Sure,it is their problem that they created, but that should make it even more interesting. I don't think the way to deal with social problems is to run away crying, it's to fight them head on. I mean seriously, racism is kinda like buying sweatshop clothing. It's wrong, you do have a choice, society supports it(how many stores do you go to that even carry non sweatshop stuff, let alone all non sweatshop?), and you shouldn't whine if called out on it. It's not the big bad boogie man out to get you, or an 'accusation'.

It's like grow up folk. And one day I'll tell you about John Waters.